“The Bigger Picture”

I’ve noticed a trend in our community that worries me. It seems that we lack a bit in the knowledge department of our religion. A lot of us caught in Fiqhi debates like if the wearing of the niqab is wajib (necessary) or not for example when there are more serious issues at hand. We put emphasis on minor issues and ignore larger matters such as our Aqeedah. It is shaky for the most of us. We’re focusing on minor aspects of our religion and are forgetting about the serious matters, the bigger picture. Some of us aren’t even we aware of this.

And we aren’t aware of these issues for some reasons. Some of us believe it is not a necessity to learn about the details of one’s religion feeling that should be left up to the Mashayakh to study. But in reality, every Muslim should know the fundamentals of his religion. Or some people wish to, but they feel they don’t have enough time in their day. In reality, there is time for a lot of things in our lives, we just need to learn about time management and learn how /what to prioritize. Our deen should be a top priority.

When Islam was introduced in Mecca at the time of Rasulullah(s), in its early days, you’ll come to notice that a lot of time and emphasis placed on Aqeedah. A lot of time was spent teaching the people about Allah, about his names, his attributes, what constituted as belief and disbelief, what it meant to be in the fold of Islam, etc. Emphasis was placed on ideology first before the laws were introduced and implemented. In fact, the majority of the laws came a decade after the message began. And there is wisdom behind that.

We got it the other way around. Laws and legislations are being forced down people’s throats, with this, not even first considering what level the peoples’ faith is at. Not even considering whether the individual has his fundamentals of Islam set straight or not. We’re busy labeling, saying of others that this person is “Sufi” or “Wahhabi” or this person is too “Salafi” etc. When in reality, we should not be divided at all as Muslims. We should call ourselves Muslim brother and sisters who submit to Allah. These people who are labelling others are trying to take the focus off of themselves and pointing fingers. When they themselves have a lot of work to do in fixing their emaan. We should focus on ourselves, meaning finding time to educate ourselves in deen and we should check to see if our own Aqeedah’s correct.

What’s scary is that when we study Aqeedah, we will see that many of us have strayed without realizing. (May Allah guide us and keep us on the right path). We’ve taken those things that would normally constitute as Shirk lightly (perhaps because we do not know about its realities). For example, believing in horoscopes, or just straight reading them, belief in the stars, palm reading, visiting fortune tellers, calling on Rasulallah, visiting graves, praying to a Mawlana and what not are not acceptable in Islam and pollute a person’s Aqeedah. These things ruin a person’s Islam. Most of us do not realize this. What we see nowadays is people who themselves have Aqeedah issues to focus on improving, but then these might be the same people pointing fingers and attacking, and labelling others.

The Aqeedah of the religion for most of us is shaky. Then how can we be so confident in ourselves to go on giving others a hard time because of the choices they’ve made for themselves? How can we be so focused on these Niqab/Hijab debates or having a beard? I can say that majority of us have even the basics to learn about the religion. And still getting into debates when we aren’t even aware of the crucial aspects of Tawheed.

And I honestly think these minor issues are only dividing us. We should be united because we all believe in Allah and take Islam as our way of life. We shouldn’t be divided and separate ourselves from each other because this person may be slightly different from us. We shouldn’t be divided at all, regardless of what a person may do. We are Muslims till the end, let’s help each other to be better Muslims.

And when did we become the judges of others, who gave us the right to deem these particular people? It is fair to know what actions will take one out of Islam for our sake so we won’t do those things, but to point fingers at a person and judge them? This is not our job. Remember that!

I have a feeling that if we as individuals took the focus off of others and returned it to ourselves for some self-reflection, we’d notice our faults and hopefully work on them.

I think every Muslim needs to be educated in the matters of his deen. Hopefully when we do learn we’ll notice what’s worth fighting over(for) and these debates that are dividing us will come to an end Insha Allah.

Till then let’s study more. And leave these issues and debates with the scholars shall we? We have enough on our plate. 🙂

*Hope you enjoyed. If so, share with your family and friends! For more good stuff follow me on any of my social media websites, and be sure to check out my latest course here Salaah

Student of Islamic Sciences. Born and raised in Canada. Loving to share my thoughts with others.
Hope you enjoyed. For more good stuff be sure to follow me on any of my social media websites, and be sure to check out my latest course here http://uaalim.com/courses/salaah
http://www.facebook.com/FardawsaYusufMohamed
https://twitter.com/FardawsaYusuf
http://instagram.com/FardawsaYusuf
Baarakallah Feekum

5 Replies to ““The Bigger Picture””

That is a great article and such a valid topic! MashAllah. WIth so much going on in the world right now, letting small personal issues come between us is just another way for the Shaytan to divide and conquer. JazakAllah khair 🙂